In the midst of this… comical GOP election, it’s been revealed that candidate Rick Santorum picked the nation’s single mothers as a target of his flighty accusations.
In 1994 when he was running for Senate, he brought the single-motherhood issue to light claiming, “What we have is moms raising children in single-parent households simply breeding more criminals.”
What Santorum and the slew of other narrow-minded people who agree with him fail to understand is not every woman simply becomes a single mother as a result of promiscuity, but by choice.
There are the heart-breaking stereotypical women who birth multiple children with various irresponsible men and fail to think about their children’s future. However, what about those women who leave abusive relationships? Whose marriages fall apart as a result of constant infidelity or chronic drug use that tears the true fabric of families? What about those who married because they had no other choice?
Family circumstances are not always black and white, and vary among each individual and situation.
For instance, my mother left my father, who was battling a multitude of addictions, when I was five and she was pregnant with my younger brother. In all honesty, she knew if she stayed, we would have had nothing.
But then, conservatives might say, “Why did she marry him in first place?”
The answer: she had an extreme right-wing, conservative mother who encouraged marriage because of an unplanned pregnancy (me) regardless and for the sake of her own reputation. My grandmother was highly embarrassed when her daughter became pregnant her senior year of college at Illinois State University.
But then, the right-wing might say, “She shouldn’t have gotten pregnant!”
They fail to understand just because parents take you to church doesn’t guarantee holy living. My mother, sadly didn’t have a open, loving and brutally honest relationship with my holy ghost grandma, whose ideology is its easier to say nothing than say something.
Yes, these good decisions are labeled “common sense” but homes across America are absent of guidance and realistic communication with their parents and relatable role models. The GOP is too quick to judge and forget the naivety of their youth.
But then, Republicans might say, “She should have stayed to work it out because God doesn’t like divorce!”
Yes, but God Himself does not rejoice in our misery and always offers a way out if you ask, because He is glad when you prosper. God doesn’t like the idea of men bringing down their families with their inability to be a true man and treat their wives like queens and children like true treasures of the earth. In the long run, single parenthood for others mean peace, freedom, love and most of all, a blessing in disguise.
Photo Source: thinkprogress.org